328 Recently published Ornithological Works. 



59. Stirling and Zietz on a Fossil Struthious Bird from 

 Australia. 



[Genyornis ninvtoni — a Fossil Struthious Bird from Lake Callabonna, 

 South Australia. Description of the Boues of the Leg and Foot. By 

 E. C. Stirling, M.D., F.A.S., and A. II. C. Zietz, F.L.S. Trans. R. Soc. 

 of S. Australia, 1896, vol. xx. p. 191, pis. iii.-v.] 



This pa,per contains the first instalment of tlie detailed 

 description of the skeleton of the remarkable Struthious bird 

 Genyornis newtoni, a brief notice of the preliminary account 

 of which has already appeared in this journal. The bones of 

 the hind limb are now described and compared with those 

 of other Eatite birds, and a number of excellent photographic 

 figures of the specimens are given. 



The femur seems to be chiefly notable for the smoothness 

 of the shaft, which is trilateral in section, the absence of any 

 posterior projection of the trochanter such as occurs in 

 Dinornis, and the presence of pneumatic openings both at 

 the upper end of the bone and in the popliteal fossa. The 

 tibio-tarsus has a very large cnemial crest, which rises high 

 above its articular surface; the lower end of the shaft is 

 strongly inflected inward ; and there is a very oblique, nearly 

 median extensor bridge. In the metatarsus there is a well- 

 developed intercondylar process, and the hypotarsus is simple; 

 the lower end of the groove between the third and fourth 

 trochlese is perforated by a foramen. The second trochlea 

 is extremely reduced, and the toe which it bears is very 

 slender, although the first phalangeal is longer than that of 

 the middle toe. In digits 3 and 4 there are four phalanges, 

 which are much flattened from above downward. So far as 

 the hind limb is concerned Genyornis therefore seems to 

 have been particularly remarkable for the reduction and 

 comparatively small size of the foot compared with the 

 raassiveness of the upper part of the leg, and, in the reduc- 

 tion of its inner toe, it seems to have been well on the way 

 to the condition seen in the Ostrich, in which this toe is 

 absent and the trochlea reduced to a small pointed process 

 of bone. It may be suggested that the ancestor of Geny- 

 ornis may have been a swamp-loving bird with massive limbs 

 and three well-developed toes like jEpyornis, and that, a 



